Tag Archives: brewery life

It’s been a hot minute now, hasn’t it? Let’s play catch-up with way too many pictures!Turns out I’m part owner of this wonderful brewery, Snowbank Brewing! Paperwork was signed, wallets were put under duress and now I’m a proud partner with some of my favorite people in the world at what has become my first home, seeing as I’m here at least 60 hours a week.We’ve come a long way since our very first tapping at the (sadly now defunct) Cranknstein. On August 22nd, we officially turned one year old!It’s been a long year, yet it seems like we just opened yesterday. Since becoming an owner, I’ve also come to realize that sometimes balance is required in life, no matter how much I love being at the brewery all the time.I’ve recently become an active member of Gociety – a website dedicated to adventure meet-ups.Every Wednesday morning for the past month and a half, this group has been ascending Horsetooth Rock in order to catch a glimpse of the first rays of sunlight streaming over the horizon.Hot coffee is brewed via JetBoil and all ten to twenty of us chow down on homemade breakfast burritos, take ridiculous GoPro pictures and then descend the mountain in order to get to work on time.I love these people.I tend to rep my brewery quite a bit…I also sometimes force other brewery owners to join. This is Matt from Odell Brewing, now a co-owner of that brewery!Of course all of my Gociety friends are now Snowbank addicts lovers.These sunrises will never get old.I took an actual full weekend off and headed up to Trestle in Winter Park with some awesome/insane biker guys for some downhill mountain biking. Almost faceplanted, but didn’t! They ended up heading down the black diamond trails while I stuck with going fast on the greens. I’m cool like that.I’ve also been running early in the mornings. For some crazy reason, I’ve come to ENJOY running! WHO AM I?I even bought shoes to match my hair to convince myself to run more. Or the shoes were just really comfortable. Definitely one of the two…I took off for a week and head up to one of my favorite spots in the world – Jackson, Wyoming. And yes, I check this every single flight I take, Final Destination style.
The first day was a six mile hike followed by cliff jumping into glacier water.This wonderful little vocal one was along for the trip. It was wonderful to have a large chunk of the extended family together for the first time in years!I already miss this view.The second day my pops and I went downhill mountain biking in Teton Village. I started the day off with a Golden Moose, a caffeinated beverage that I last had six years ago when I was in Wyoming last.Lift ride up to the top!Helmet on, ready to go!My pops had an unfortunate incident where he biffed right in front of me. I slammed my knee into my frame attempting not to run over his face. Besides a cracked helmet and a couple of possibly cracked ribs, he’s fine! He even rode the rest of the trail down before succumbing to his injuries and heading to the store for some pain killers.The next day I hiked up to the top of Rendezvous – 7.4 miles with a 4,000 foot elevation gain. Came across a new addition and sat on the swing enjoying the view.Two and a half hours later I reached the top. A French man was walking down and asked why I’d walked up from the village instead of taking the tram up. My response? “If you hike to the top, the tram down is free!”I hike because I’m cheap. And it was wonderful to escape from humans for two hours and hear nothing except for my wheezing lungs and the sound of the wind.I celebrated the victory of the climb at Snake River Brewing with the parental unit.And met up with a Colorado buddy, Ben, the next day as he was passing through the state on a long road trip.Our final evening was spent halfway up the mountain with a glass of red wine, tempura summer vegetables and a relaxing sunset. Bliss.I came back to the real world with a refreshed view on life, making a promise to myself to get out into the neat nature that surrounds me here in Colorado. Louie, my favorite regular with an awesome underbite, agreed with me.My friend Kylie and I hiked up to Isabelle Glacier on my next day off.The lovely Joule Bug joined us. This Instagram star is a trooper.We heated up some French press coffee and shivered as we gazed over the crystal clear blue water.
The temperature at the end of that six mile hike was about 35 degrees, and there was absolutely not another human around.We cradled the piping hot coffee cups in our hands, sipping greedily for the few seconds we could before the coffee also turned icy.After a few hours of brutal freeze, we decided to hike back down and grab some hydration.We hit the Tasty Weasel for a brew and then headed back into civilization.Snowbank Brewing’s one year anniversary came about! We’ve bottled our first beer ever, Tripel Corkscrew, named after the snowboarding trick, the Backside Triple Cork 1440, made famous by Mark McMorris in 2013. This beer is a fruity Belgian Tripel with hints of peppery spice on the nose, a medium body full of citrus flavor with a touch of oak and a dry, lingering spicy finish. 8.5% ABV, 30 IBU. Conditioned on Blue Skies Winery Chardonnay French Oak.We were absolutely slammed the entire anniversary weekend and had an amazing time with our regulars/newbies and amazing friends. And beer, of course.I came ridiculously close to adopting this perfect, blissfuly happy dog, but he found a full family so he wouldn’t have to have a single mama like myself. I attempted not to tear up as the new family took Nugget away. Yes, I renamed him after a hop, and the gracious new family agreed to keep Nugget as his official name.And then this. I was cleaning up after the celebrations and just happened to drop a heavy metal table on my foot. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone…And just like that, my running and hiking days were delayed for four weeks. Nothing is broken, it’s just a “crush injury and massive contusion”. I get to wear this beautiful boot for four weeks until the bone bruise is finally healed. I also get to soak my foot in a bucket of ice water four times a day for twenty minutes each time. Brutal.Which means I have extra time to study for the new Advanced Cicerone test!Said studying will take place in my new favorite coffee shop, Bindle Coffee. It hurts me to post this since I want to keep this gem all to myself, but they deserve all of the customers they can get with their fantastic coffee and housemade almond milk. I may have spent four hours there yesterday morning…So I’ve missed a few months, but I feel like the most important information has been covered! I hike, I travel, I drink coffee, I own a brewery, I break myself, I study beer.

Also, I’ve missed writing and living such an adventurous life. T-minus four weeks until the boot comes off and I’m back on top of that mountain!

I’m alive, but barely!Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration. I got wiped out Sunday with a fever and lovely lung issues. Therefore, I’ve been banned from the brewery and forced into a few “days off” until 48 hours after my fever subsides. Last night’s peak was 101. Thanks to that, I have time to do a blog recap again, albeit with a foggy brain.A few weeks ago I trekked back down to Boulder on one of my real days off to pick up some tea from Celestial Seasonings that have seriously come in handy in the last few days.I have an addiction…On my days off, I generally like to get out of town and do anything active and new, but there’s something to be said about relaxing at home with a glass of wine and having time to play chef.Prior to these past few days, it had been months since I’d seen the sunset from inside my own house. And I think it’s time to clean the outside of my windows…Most of my sunsets are spent at the brewery.No complaints there, but I have missed my wonderful couches.We had our staff holiday party two weeks ago (after I’d spent my day off in Broomfield with my bestie) which consisted of a bottle share, tons of food and our wonderful beer tellers.Plus the president of the Rocky Mountain Beard and Moustache Club. How could you not let that face in for a bottle share?I went out to brunch with some of my favorite ladies at Snooze in Fort Collins for a quasi day off on a Thursday and enjoyed mimosas, long conversations and painfully delicious pancakes before heading back to the brewery and real life.Our most popular Nuance Chocolate collaboration beer to date was tapped – S’mores Stout garnished with mini marshmallows. We kicked the keg in an hour and fifteen minutes with this one and will be recreating it for the Real Ale Real Love Firkin Festival in Loveland this Saturday.
I had to drop some stuff off at New Belgium during the work week and decided I should probably stay and enjoy a pint of their new session IPA, Slow Ride with a friend who happened to be there at the same time. Mini breaks in the middle of my weeks help my sanity.Last Friday night was… interesting… One regular brought us canned bread. I don’t know why…After the canned bread sampling I decided to take the rest of the night off and sat down and played Cards Against Humanity with the staff, a few of our favorite regulars-turned-friends and experimented with beermosa blends.Sunday was another day off and I could tell something awful was about to occur, so I got out of the house and took this handsome fella for a walk before the cough really started to set in.I had a big day planned and I wasn’t about to let the beginnings of the flu ruin it. I headed down to Denver and grabbed lunch at The Ale House – blackened chicken sammich with pepperjack cheese, fried avocado and pineapple salsa. Painfully delicious. Afterwards we headed to the Denver Aquarium that I haven’t been to since I was 13 before driving back up and collapsing into the couch with NyQuil, blankets and a movie.Now I’m sitting here twiddling my thumbs, trying not to go crazy from being cooped up and answering work emails. Oh, lovely flu. I’ve been trying to force more aspects of quasi-days off into my life since the past few months have revolved around the brewery and nothing but the brewery. Trying to find a balance when starting up a new business is hard, so I’m using these wonderful days of illness to try and get things into perspective and start planning a life outside of work.

Happy Thanksgiving! I started this post yesterday and then got slammed at the brewery, per usual. And it’s been almost a month since I had time to sit down and write a blog!I had a few days at the beginning of the month where I actually had time to put together meals for the brewery and went on a week long kick of layered salads. It didn’t last long…We’ve been busy with photo shoots for an upcoming cookbook where our beer is cooked into and paired with dishes from local restaurants. I was the designated beer “frother” for a politer term of what the position was deemed on set. Let your mind go in the gutter on that one. Just this once.The last few days of autumn colors were enjoyed before all the leaves dropped off the trees.And this is what I woke up to the next day. It only took me three tries to get up the driveway into my garage that night.Snowbank had our first employee appreciation day! We spent the day on the town visiting breweries, restaurants and chocolate shops. I’ll be honest, it was weird to have a full day off with everyone. Weird and awesome. Our Snowbank tellers are awesome.The snow refused to melt for a while, which made for some opportune photo ops.The first day…The snow kept piling up.And after a solid 5 inches it finally started to melt.Part of the job includes visiting places where we’re on tap and doing quality control. Tough job.We had to go to Pinball Jones for one of these QC checks.And were forced to play an hour and a half of arcade bowling.I’m player number three. This is the only time in my life I have ever, or will ever, win at bowling.I’ve started taking Sundays off! Since I had a full day off, I decided it was necessary to go to the brewery and pick up some kegs to deliver to new accounts we’ve been selling into. Workaholic.And on my days off, I obviously visit other breweries. Oskar Blues’ Cyclhops Bike Cantina.And since I was so close, I continued on to the Oskar Blues brewery and shared a flight with my two besties.And THEN I remembered that Großen Bart Brewery had opened that week and trekked over to try their brews which were all solid, and ended with a growler of Fu Manchu Foreign Stout to share with my brew crew.And now I have to head out to Vegan Thanksgiving at my bro and sis-in-law’s house (don’t worry, we have the meatitarian Thanksgiving on Sunday), so I leave you with this screenshot I found on The Chive of my old Lonelygirl15 buddy Jackson watching Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep about to make out. You’re welcome.

There used to be a time when I would sit down at the end of the day and write out a blog post, no matter what the time. Lately I’ve been so busy with working that writing a post feels like a luxury.Plenty of that is my fault, for sure. Those industry nights at a local speakeasy where they give us free dinner could be passed up in exchange for a post, but why would I give up free food? That’s just crazy talk. Here’s a quick little recap of what’s been going on in my life as a workaholic.Doing beer sales at Black Bottle Brewery where they recently released the Count Chocula beer that created headlines internationally.Selling beer into a place with over 50 pinball machines. We were given three free games, so of course we had to stay for a bit after sampling. I learned something very important about myself there – I suck at pinball.Beanies came in!So did hoodies! I’ve worn both of these items way too often, but I can’t help it! I’m so proud to be part of this brewery.My best friend got married at a beautiful golf course down in Littleton.Rehearsal dinner dress. Thank God for girdles!As soon as I returned from the dinner I threw on my preferred outfit – sweats, sweatshirt, flip flops and paired it with a glass of Malbec.The bride’s beautiful hairstyle for the big day. I was that girl in the salon telling her, “If you change your mind, I’ve got my car right outside. We can just go!” I don’t think she appreciated my humor at this point.Waterfall braid and curls for me! My groomsman partner and I Thriller-danced into the reception dinner afterwards. I was too busy enjoying my friend’s happiness and dancing to take any pics at the actual wedding.Immediately after I went out and got my hair hot pink, purple and teal-ified. Cuz I can still get away with it.I decided to get healthy after the wedding and began making mason jar layer salads.The healthy kick didn’t last very long. A new food truck came in with Chicago-style hot dogs topped with mac ‘n cheese and bacon bits. I need to do a quality check with every food truck, obviously. It’s just part of this tough job I have.Halloween came and went. I worked the taproom and then binged for the next two days on leftover candy.And this morning we had our first snowflakes! The brew dogs weren’t too pleased about it…That’s my crazy life lately! Now for another one of those free dinner industry nights…